Instagram now works offline

The feature is currently available for Android users only

Instagram announced on Tuesday that android users would now be able to use the photo-sharing app offline.

The announcement came at Facebook’s F8 conference in San Francisco. The Facebook-owned photo-sharing app said it had built support for using most of its features without Internet access.

Instagram engineer Hendri said android users would now be able to see content previously loaded in their Instagram feed even if they were offline. They will also be able to like posts, leave comments, save media or unfollow people. However, all of this will be queued and will go through as soon as they connect to the internet. Offline users will also be able to see profiles they already have as well as old versions of the Explore tab or their own profile.



Instagram’s decision to launch the offline feature first on Android makes sense given the fact that it is the preferred device type in the developing world. Further, the company needed to find a way to provide a better experience for users in the developing nations where data plans are not only expensive but also data connectivity in these country are at best sketchy.



The success of Facebook Lite, a Facebook app which works on 2G networks and areas with slow or unstable connections, shows how Instagram can grow by catering to the needs of those with limited data plan.

This article originally appeared on Tech Crunch